The invention relates to a connector component for fastening an airbag module to a steering wheel according to the preamble of claim 1. Such connector component is known, for example, from DE 10 2012 002 722 A1.
The known connector component comprises plural individual components in the form of bearing parts. The bearing parts form, on the one hand, a steering wheel-side part and, on the other hand, a module-side part. The steering wheel-side part is directly coupled to the steering wheel armature and can be exactly aligned vis-à-vis the steering wheel armature. The module-side part is connected to the airbag module and can be exactly aligned vis-à-vis the airbag module. The module-side part and the steering wheel-side part are biased against each other in a marked state so that in an idle position of the module-side part the airbag module is arranged to be spaced apart from the steering wheel armature. The airbag module is movable against the biasing force toward the steering wheel armature, the module-side part and the steering wheel-side part of the connector component abutting against each other.
It is known from practice to arrange horn contacts separately from the connector component on the one hand on the airbag module and on the other hand on the steering wheel. The horn contacts contact each other when the airbag module is in the hooting position. In this way an electric horn circuit can be closed, whereupon the signal horn of a vehicle is blown.
In manufacturing steering wheel assemblies especially the requirements to the tolerance as regards the clearance between the airbag module and the steering wheel constitute a problem. The steering wheel armature is usually provided with steering wheel foam cover afflicted with relatively large tolerances. Therefore, among plural steering wheel assemblies of one production unit there are differences in the clearance between the airbag module and the steering wheel. For compensating such differences it is required to align each individual steering wheel assembly separately so that the desired tolerances frequently intended to amount to less than 0.5 mm or even less than 0.1 mm are reached. This entails considerable additional costs in the production of steering wheel assemblies.
Furthermore, the costs for integrating a horn function in the steering wheel assembly are comparatively high, as the horn contacts are arranged separately at the steering wheel and at the airbag module, respectively. As a consequence, it is necessary for each type of steering wheel, for instance for different car manufacturers, to individually design and arrange the connector component and the horn contacts.